LEXINGTON, Ky. – Having dropped four of its last five games by a -9.5 margin, the Kentucky women?s basketball team looks to return to their winning ways when they meet No. 15/15 Vanderbilt in Memorial Coliseum Thursday, Feb. 1. Game time is 7 p.m. EST and will be carried live on the Big Blue Sports Network with Neil Price.
Single-game general admission tickets are available for $5 adults/$2 senior citizens and children 6-18. Ages five and under are admitted free. UK students, faculty and staff also are admitted free with valid identification based on availability. For ticket information, log on to ukathletics.com or call the UK ticket office at 859-257-1818 or 1-800-928-CATS (2287).
Kentucky (14-8, 3-4 Southeastern Conference) also looks to chart its first win over Vanderbilt in seven years and snap a 10-game losing streak to the Commodores. The Cats? last win over Vanderbilt was Jan. 7, 1999, a thrilling 70-69 win in Lexington.
?February is a whole new season for us,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?We have seven games remaining before the SEC Tournament and four of those games are at home. We have to take care of our home court and us it to our advantage. Vanderbilt is a great team and they are leading the nation in three-point shooting right now. We?ve been solid defensively this season but we have to do a better job in rebounding and running our offensive sets.?
The Wildcats are coming off a pair of losses last week vs. Mississippi State (83-75 2OT) and South Carolina (66-56). Senior forward/center Jennifer Humphrey led the Wildcats against Mississippi State with her second consecutive double-double, a career-high 22 points and 16 rebounds. MSU outscored UK 8-0 in the second overtime for the win. Sophomore point guard Carly Ormerod led the way at South Carolina, scoring a game-high 17 points to complement five assists. The Gamecocks held a 53-33 advantage on the boards (UK?s largest deficit this season) to key them to the victory.
A balanced scoring attack is anchored by juniors Sarah Elliott and Mahoney. Elliott averages 13.4 points per game while Mahoney follows with 13.1 ppg. Senior Jenny Pfeiffer and Ormerod are near the double-digit scoring mark with 9.7 and 8.8 ppg, respectively. Humphrey is the team?s leading rebounder, pulling down 9.8 rebounds per game. She ranks third in the SEC statistics in rebounding and is No. 2 all-time on UK?s all-time list. She also is just the third Wildcat in UK history to chart over 700 points and 800 rebounds in a career (779-829), joining former greats Valerie Still and Leslie Nichols.
Vanderbilt (18-4, 4-3 SEC) won 14 of its first 15 games to start the season before falling to Ole Miss in Oxford on Jan. 7, 76-66. The Commodores? other three losses have all come against nationally-ranked teams in No. 4 Duke, No. 14 Georgia and No. 4 Tennessee.
The game with Vanderbilt will be a battle behind the arc. The Commodores, coming off a resounding 61-34 win over Arkansas, currently lead the nation in three-point field goal percentage, shooting .417 (136-326) percent. The Wildcats rank seventh in the league in three-point field goal percentage defense, holding the opposition to .306 percent (82-268).
Senior forward Carla Thomas leads three players in double-figure scoring, averaging 16.9 ppg. Carolina Williams and Christina Wirth follow with 12.2 and 11.7 ppg, respectively. Thomas also in the team?s leading rebounder with 7.1 rpg. Dee Davis leads the SEC in assists per game and is VU?s all-time leader in that category. She has dished out 136 this season.
Fans are encouraged to park in Parking Structure 5 located next to Kennedy?s Bookstore on Limestone Avenue. Parking within Parking Structure 5 will be available free of charge. A shuttle bus service also will be provided and begins one hour prior to game time until one hour after the game. Additional game day parking is available in the E lots surrounding Memorial Coliseum including the Martin Luther King Parking Lot and the Student Center Parking Lot.
